1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to boarding passes and, more particularly, to re-usable boarding passes for airlines and the like.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Boarding passengers quickly and more securely that is more than just added convenience to the flyer. The initial statistical metrics from the self check-in boarding pilot programs around the world have shown to decrease the boarding times up to 3×—saving the airline industry money.
International Air Transport Association (IATA) and other airline advocates have embraced and promoted advancements in boarding technology from 1D barcodes and magnetic strip technology to 2D barcodes and RFID technology for boarding. The new infrastructure hardware for gate boarding and airport kiosks for generating boarding passes is costly. In addition, this hardware must be capable of handling several types of boarding passes both mobile electronic and paper based generated boarding passes.
The key shortfall with employing 2D barcodes and RFID is security. The additional authenticating method to checking a user's ID or passport should be machine based and very secure. Reading barcodes and or a unique ID to a reader is machine based but it a one-way communications link (from card to reader). Strong cryptographic systems are two-way and require a share a single or shared split cryptographic key to protect the user's data.
Updating user's data like flight, seat, and boarding order are dynamic and require cryptographic keys to robustly protect. Static user data like name and data of birth require encryption and should only leave the users card after the reader has proven their identity cryptographically using mutual challenge response algorithm.
Any proposed future system must not require any significant hardware costs to what is already in place and must provide enhanced efficiency, security, and convenience. Although these 3 check-in processes are dynamic and implementing emerging technologies, no one boarding method (home internet, mobile, or kiosk) can be used alone and get 100% customer acceptance. All provide more efficient boarding yet all three fall short of a comprehensive solution for reasons such as not all cell phones batteries die and some are not web enabled, travelers may not have time at home or at the office to print boarding passes and kiosks run out of paper & ink.
A variety of systems and methods for secure authentication using a token have been used in the past. Such smart tokens may be in the form of smartcards, USB tokens or other forms. Conventional smartcards typically are credit-card sized and made out of flexible plastic such as polyvinyl chloride. Smartcards have been used in wide varieties of applications, such as identification badges, membership cards, credit cards, etc. Conventional USB token are typically small and portable and may be of any shape. They are embedded with a micromodule containing a silicon integrated circuit with a memory and a microprocessor.
Smartcards can be either “contact” or “contactless.” Contact cards typically have a visible set of gold contact pads for insertion into a card reader. Contactless cards use radio frequency signals to operate. Other smart tokens connect to other devices through a USB or other communications port.
Smart cards typically may have information or artwork printed on one or both sides of the card. Since smart cards are typically credit card sized, the amount of information that may be displayed on a smartcard is typically limited. A number of efforts have been made to increase the amount of data that may be displayed on a smartcard. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,270,276 discloses a multi-application smartcard having a dynamic display portion made, for example, of electronic ink. The display on that card changes from a first display to a second display in response to an application use of the smartcard. Another example is U.S. Patent Publication Serial No. US2005/0258229, which disclosed a multi-function smartcard (also known as an “integrated circuit card” or “IC card”) with the ability to display images on the obverse side of the card.
Access control stations typically located on the boundary of the security area or building use some method to verify or authenticate the uses who are allowed access. The general methods to authenticate include one or more of the following;                What you have—a card or ID machine or visually checked by a guard        What you know—a password typed into a keypad        What you are—a physical biometric attribute comparing a pre-stored “template” to a live scan using some hardware at the access control station        
There are many shortfalls and added system complexities for implementing these access control methods like; user data must be stored on a database or within the card securely, cards can be duplicated or lost, passwords can be hacked, biometrics are difficult and costly to store and scale to larger access control networks.
Recently, efforts have been made to incorporate displays into RFID cards and tags. For example, in U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2010/0052908 entitled “Transient State Information Display in an RFID Tag,” a display is incorporated into an RFID card to show a transient state such as an age of a product. In the preferred embodiment disclosed in that patent, a card or tag reader provides a current date while the card provides the expiration date of the product. Based on a comparison of those two, an LED is illuminated to reflect the status of the product. The disclosure indicates that a variety of other types of displays may be used and also that the card may be active or passive. In another example, U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2010/0079416 entitled “Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Display Pixel, and Display Panel and Display Apparatus Using RFID Display Pixel” discloses an RFID tag connected to an “RFID pixel” or plurality of “RFID pixels.” Another example is described in U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2009/0309736 entitled “Multifunction Contactless Electronic Tag for Goods.”